Question

Topic: Website Critique

Need Input

Posted by Anonymous on 12/21/2007 at 12:12 PM ET 125 Points
This is a brand new site. I am looking for any suggestion that may improve this site. The site address is terrysjo.com. Our problem is that not one sale has been received since being published. The average pages viewed is 4.3 with no results. This site has accumulated 7280 hits. Would appreciate any input!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 12/21/2007 at 5:42 PM Accepted
    It's December 21st and there were probably millions of last minute shoppers looking for Christmas items online this past week.

    Your site currently advertises Giant Before Christmas Sale. A headline that is about as generic as you can get. Online shoppers are smart. Your site looks like a template based online shopping store that could be offering almost any type of product. Jewelry is an emotional purchase. Your current site is just there and offers no emotion.

    Instead of a red splash color graphic as your main banner graphic how about a stock image of a women excited about opening a small box that you know contains a ring or some kind of jewelry? It is Christmas time...

    Look at your landing pages. Charms and Pendants as an example has a list of products. Boring and plain. How about a collage of different products offered in the different categories. Something to excite the visitor to click on a specific category.

    Unless I clicked on the About us page I would have no idea you have been in the jewelry business for over 15 years. This information needs to be on the home page. This helps build credibility for your site and for you.

    You need credibility before someone is going to purchase from your online store. Jewelry is a tough sell online. People want to see what they are buying so you have to make it easy for them to tell what they are buying.

    If I were you. I would build your online store around your family and their experience in the jewelry business. We have been a retail jeweler for 15 years with over 80 years of experience and now we are brining this experience online. Design the store like the visitor is walking into a retail outlet. Show your merchandise but without the weird backgrounds. If I were interested in purchasing a $4,770.97 ring I want to see a lot pictures. Not one photo with some weird blue star around the photo.

    You gave the template based site a chance and did not work. Now invest in a custom online store that truly reflects who you are and the products that you sell.

    Good Luck in 2008

  • Posted on 12/21/2007 at 5:50 PM Author
    Your analyst of the site is greatly appreciated and right on point. I am in the process of a complete redesign of this site but a couple of months down the road. I especially appreciated the family angle as it is one that never entered the picture. I will however place some more pictures in the sub-cat pages in the mean time. Thanks again greatly appreciated!
  • Posted on 12/21/2007 at 6:03 PM Author
    I would like to take the time to say thank you to each and everyone that has offered ways of improving this site. I believe that each has offered basically the same approach. We certainly have missed the elegant portion of presentation. We were to eager to get product online asap.

    Wishing you all a very Happy and Safe Holiday Season.
    Terry
  • Posted by Harry Hallman on 12/22/2007 at 8:55 AM Member
    Hits are meaningless. You want to track visitors. Is that what you meant? Check your stats to see what your bounce rate is. That is the number of people who come to the site and leave without going to other pages. I bet it is high. You also want to see how long visitors stay on the site. The longer the better.

    Design is wanting, but I have seen worse make sales. Some color changes might help with this. Try more eligant colors. Get rid of the red.

    You need more pictures of people on the site. This helps personalize it.

    Someone said this already. That notice of the sale, shipping and PayPal is in the wrong place. You want to show what you sell on the top. This looks like desperation and takes up the space taht product should have.

    Good luck.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 12/22/2007 at 9:34 AM Member
    Concentrate on your home page copy (if you don't already know how people came to your website - what they searched on - make sure to add analytics).

    Who is your prospect? What are they interested in? The copy needs to address THEM. Your tagline ("Your one-stop shop for Jewelry") isn't strong. Focus your benefit in it. The "Serenity Jewelry Online offers a full..." likewise needs to be in a bigger font, and talk directly to your prospect.

    Also, since SerenityJewelryOnline.com is owned by a competitor, and you're not getting sales from this domain, now's a good time to rename your online store.
  • Posted on 12/26/2007 at 10:50 AM Author
    We have redesigned the front page temporarily to reflect some of your suggestions. I hope to have the finished product by middle of Jan, 2008. Thanks for a great deal of information and success to all of you in the New Year!
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